Betta Have My Money!

Over the past 5 years I have had to make some major adjustments on my mindset, particularly when it comes to being a creative person and not languishing on the poverty line until the day I 'made it'. While I was busy advancing towards that goal the world changed and technology placed the opportunity right into my hands. The gatekeepers were no longer the decision makers. I was. It was liberating. But I had many skills to learn and many more bad habits and disempowering beliefs to release.One of the greatest one of these centered around money.

Being an independent creative or Musicpreneuer means now moving the mindset of an employee where, for the most part, you clock in/clock out and get a certain amount on a particular day until you leave or are asked to and as a result, life is based on the parameters of the income received. Now instead, you look at what you require to live and then create your world to provide the necessary funds.

All this seems fairly straight forward until you have to decide exactly what figure you are going to charge for your services. For me, that brought up a number of resistances I was unaware were still within me. I had thoughts of,'Am I charging too much and will I look greedy?'Are my prices too low. Do I not feel worthy enough to ask for a better rate?'Can this client afford to pay what I am asking?

Making this decision was harder than completing the work itself. That was easy and very enjoyable to me and I think it was because of that it seemed almost wrong somehow to ask to get paid. And there it was. The light shining right onto the BIG issue. Self-worth and the value I had placed on myself. I had become so conditioned to exchanging my time for not so great money that I struggled to appreciate that the skills I had equipped myself with in my own spare time were worthy of greater compensation. I was able to save somebody time and give them the desired result. That had a monetary value.

Most people dream of being rich and living a luxurious life, but the truth of it is most of those people could not handle it and would revert to their former financial level very quickly.

Deciding on a figure and then asking for it requires a leap of faith and stepping into the shoes of a person who asks for and receives on a greater level. Luckily for me I have great guidance in the shape of Jo-Ná Williams. I reached out to her for advice and she invited me onto her new podcast series Artists Without Dayjobs.

You can listen to the replay here.

Whether you are stepping out and becoming an entrepreneur or just stepping up and asking the world for more, use one of my favourite quotes from Jim Rohn as inspiration. 'Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.'